August 8, 2013 - Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

The same night I was whipping up the Irish Brown Soda Bread for my fam, I figured I'd make a dessert quick too.  I had a bunch of peanuts, and looked for what I could do with that.  I had already made the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, but I saw there was a variation.  The only thing better than a peanut butter cookie is one with some chocolate in it.  And that is exactly what I found with this recipe.

These are made identical to the peanut butter cookies, just with chocolate chips added in at the end with the ground nuts.  But wow, what an amazing addition that one simple ingredient is!

Yet again, this was a basic cookie recipe of whisk they dry ingredients, mix the sugar, butter and other ingredients (in this case, peanut butter), and then mixing them all together with some ground peanuts and chocolate chips.

After the batter was mixed, the cookies were rolled up and flattened out with the fancy criss cross pattern.

These cookies were really awesome.  Yet again I loved the crunchiness of the peanut butter and chopped peanuts, mixed with the chewiness of the cookie.  Then, the combo of adding the chocolate chips just put them over the top.  Another winner.

August 8, 2013 - Irish Brown Soda Bread

Another case of family coming over for dinner and requesting a bread.  Unfortunately, I had about an hour and a half.  Of course I went to the Quick Breads recipes to see what I could whip up quick.  I had already made the Classic Irish Soda Bread recipe, so I decided to go with a variation of this, and went with the Irish Brown Soda Bread.

The amazing this about this recipe is how quick you can pull it together.  The biggest difference in this variation versus the original was the addition of whole wheat flour, toasted wheat germ, and some brown sugar.

This bread was a major hit, especially with my dad, who loved the dense, almost biscuit like center, and I loved the flavor the whole what a bit of brown sugar added.  And, like the classic version, the crust gets an amazing crusty exterior.  This is such a great recipe for a quick bread to go with basically any meal.  Heck, we had it with lasagna!

August 3, 2013 - Pecan Pie

I had a hankering for Pecan Pie.  I don't know why, or where it came, but I really wanted some.  So the same day I made my dad his lemon shoofly pie, I figured I would double up and make a Pecan Pie as well.

This was a pretty time consuming pie to make actually.  I guess most pies are when you factor in the dough/crust process.  For this pie, I first had to make the Pie Dough for Prebaked Pie Shell recipe (which luckily let me know another one off my list!).

The dough mixed up and chilled very similarly to the Basic Pie Dough.  Obviously, the biggest difference came at the end of the process.  Instead of putting the filling in the raw shell, you bake the crust partway first.  This was where things got a little tricky, mostly because for this recipe the filling has to go in when the crust comes right out of the oven.  This recipe was all about timing of things.  While the crust was chilling/doing it's thing it was time to mix up the filling.

The first part of this process was to toast and chop up the pecans.  Then, it was a matter of whisking a combination of butter, sugars, eggs, and other minor ingredients and heating them to about 130 degrees.  Then, after that was done, the pecans went in.  I have to say the look and smell of this filling was unbelievable.  I was very excited for this pie.

Amazingly enough, I timed things pretty well perfectly, and just as my filling was finishing up, the pie shell came out of the oven.  In the filling went, and back in the oven.

 

After the pie came out of the oven, it had to finish cooling and setting up.  Then, it was time for a slice.  Wow.  So so good.  Unbelievable combination of the richness of the filling and pecans, and the flaky crust.  It was truly amazing, and a definite winner for everyone!

 

 

August 3, 2013 - Basic Pie Dough

This update will be short and sweet.  We were out to eat one night and my dad saw the restaurant had Shoofly Pie on the menu for dessert.  He then started to reminisce about a Lemon Shoofly Pie he had eaten before.  Of course, I took this as a hint of sorts and set to finding a recipe (I knew this wasn't a pie I would find in my book).  I found one, and decided I could still check off a recipe off my list:  Basic Pie Dough.  Basically, it was a matter of mixing some basic dry ingredients with some butter and shortening, balling it up and chilling for a bit. 

 

The crust really turned out great.  It was flakey and light, with a nice color once baked.  The pie itself turned out great, and my dad was very happy.  It was so good, in fact, I made another one 3 days later!

July 23, 2013 - Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies & Nut Oatmeal Cookies

I have come to realize that the Oatmeal Cookie recipe (and all the variations of it) is probably one of my favorites so far.  The cookies come out so thick and chewy, and the flavor is always fantastic.  So I figured it was time to make some more of these bad boys, and I went with these two variations: Oatmeal Raisin & Nut Oatmeal.  For the sake of space and time, I will combine these two recipes into one update and only include pictures of one of them.

The other thing I love about this recipe is how easy and quick it is to mix up and get in the oven.  Just a quick whisk of the dry ingredients, beat the butter, sugar and eggs, and then mix it all up and stir in the oatmeal and raisins/nuts.

Once the batter is mixed up its just a matter of rolling it up and baking.  Let me just say, Oatmeal Raisin cookies were never one of my favorites before, but after making this version I think I have officially changed my stance.  I love these cookies!

July 20, 2013 - Yeasted Doughnuts - Sugar, Cinnamon Sugar, Vanilla Glaze & Chocolate Glaze

I was really enjoying the Yeast Breads & Rolls section of the book, so I went for another recipe I had been eyeing up for a while....Yeasted Doughnuts.  I am a doughnut LOVER, so of course I was all about trying this recipe.  And, of course, I figured why not make all of the variations at once and have a variety! 

Let me also just say, my sister brother in law and nephew were staying over for the weekend, so I was not planning to eat all of these myself (although after tasting the finished product, I very well could have)!

Like with most of the recipes in this section of the book, I had been avoiding making these.  For some reason, I had this weird thought in my head that anything yeast based that required kneading and rising must mean its hard to make.  I couldn't be more wrong, especially with this recipe. 

Once the dough was mixed up it was a matter of letting it rise for a couple of hours.




After the dough had risen, I turned it out on the counter, rolled it out and cut the shapes out.  Not owning a doughnut cutter I used different size cookie cutters, which worked fine, maybe just a little inconsistent on sizes but who cares about that, right?

 

I had decided to try out a couple of shapes and sizes.  I cut holes out of some, left some whole, and then there were the small doughnut holes.  Once they were cut, I let them rise a bit while I heated up my shortening for frying.  After the oil came to temp, in they went in nice little batches.

 

 

This process was a little bit tricky for me, having never deep fried anything like this before, so I wanted to make sure the color was right without burning, but that they stayed in long enough to cook through.  Overall, the end products were overall great (only one or two ended up getting a tiny bit of burnt spots on them, but nothing major).  Next, it was time to decide how to top them.  Of course, thinking about the number of recipes I still have to make, I decided to go with all of the variations and cross them all off at one shot!

Regular Sugar Coated...

 

Cinnamon-Sugar Coated....

 

  

Vanilla-Glazed.....

And last, but not least, Chocolate Glazed.

 

Of course, I couldn't stop there.  I decided it would be an awesome idea to make some of the vanilla cream filled.  So I whipped up a quick vanilla cream, got out my pastry tip, and filled about 6 or 7 of the whole donuts with the cream.

 

Let me just say that my kitchen was an absolute train wreck after this afternoon.  I think I used every mixing bowl, mixing utensil and tray I own.  But the end product was so incredibly worth it.  The doughnuts were perfect.  The dough had that slightly sweet yet yeasty taste, not overly heave or dense, and the toppings each added their own special flavor (not to mention the vanilla cream filling).

 

So here we are.  Three months after this journey began, and I have 49 recipes/variations down.  I think so far I am making fairly decent progress, and so far mostly everything has been a decent success (at least no complete failures!).

July 19, 2013 - Challah

I really have no idea why I decided to make this bread.  This past Friday was probably the first one in a month that I didn't have somewhere to be or something going on, so I felt like baking.  For some reason, I settled on Challah.

 

What I have found about most of the Yeast Bread & Rolls recipes is that they follow a similar pattern: Mix/knead the dough, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, form and bake.  This one was no exception to that patter. 

 

First step, mix up the dough...

 



Then, it was time to let it rise....

After rising, it was time to form the bread....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bread was interesting to form.  Basically it consisted first of dividing the dough into 2 unequal parts (one about double the size of the other).  Then, take the larger portion, divide into three "logs", and braid the logs together.  Then, repeat with the smaller portion of dough and set that braid on top of the larger braid.  Can't say I ever braided dough before!  Then, after the dough set for a bit and puffed up I brushed it with the egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds.  Into the oven it went.

 

 

 

 

I haven't called many of my creations beautiful, but this was one of the first things that I've made that came out of the oven and I was extremely proud of how it looked.  It was an awesome golden brown color, the braids had melded together perfectly, and the sesame seeds added a great topping.  The bread itself was great.  It was moist and the perfect amount of chewy without being heavy or overly dense.  Perfect with a little butter and honey on top!

 





July 9, 2013 - Cream Biscuits

So here we were again, parents coming over for dinner and I wanted to make a bread but didn't have a lot of time (sounds like deja vu from my last biscuit start, huh?).  This time, though, I decided to try out the Cream Biscuit recipe.

This dough mixed up very quickly (only 5 ingredients) so the dough was formed in no time.  I decided to go with the wedge shape, so I moulded the dough using a cake pan to get it in a circle first, then cut it with a bench scraper.  Then, the biscuits went in the oven.

 

These biscuits turned out perfect.  They had a perfect flaky center, and went awesome with some raspberry jam on top (which is my favorite way to eat a biscuit!).  This may very well be my go to recipe when in need of a quick bread or biscuit.

 

 

July 9, 2013 - Blackberry Jam Cake

I had taken some time off of baking (went to visit some friends, 4th of July, busy two weeks), so when I was looking at what I wanted to make after my break I settled for a cake.  Flipping through I was the recipe for Foolproof Sponge Cake.  This looked interesting and then I saw the Blackberry Jam Cake recipe.  I personally love anything with blackberry, so I settled on this, and I was not disappointed.

 

I had never made a sponge cake before, so this was going to be something new for me.  Being largely egg based, it consisted of a lot of beating of eggs and egg whites, mixing them together, and adding some sifted dry ingredients.  I tried my best to use a light hand at all times, because I had a feeling this could definitely be one of those cakes that if you beat or mix too much you could end up with a very thin, dense cake.  Once the batter was done it went into the pans and into the oven.

 

 

 

 

The cakes came out looking great.  They were very light and airy to the touch, and perfectly golden brown.  Once they cooled, the assembly for this cake was insanely easy:  Scoop out some blackberry jam, smooth it out on the bottom layer, slap the top layer on, and dust with confectioners sugar.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

I really enjoyed this cake.  It was lighter than a typical buttery cake, and I loved that strong flavor of the jam against the cake.  The only mistake (which you can see in the pic below) was that there were still some pockets of dry ingredients in the finished cake.  Obviously something I need to take better care of avoiding the next time I make a cake like this.  Overall though, another success!